Arab Spatial launches Food Security Blog

A great collection of 4 inaugural stories of the new Arab Food Security Blog launched today to become an integral part of the Arab Spatial platform. With this valuable addition, the online atlas becomes not just a unique open-access information tool on development and food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, but a real forum for discussion, learning, and knowledge-sharing.

I trust that readers of this blog will be inspired by the opportunities at hand by joining forces with other stakeholders, different networks, at national and regional level, and I sincerely hope that the Near East will soon have new success stories to share with the rest of the world.

- Gerda Verburg, Chair of the Committee on Food Security (CFS) and Ambassador of the Netherlands to theUN’s Rome-based Agencies

The Arab Spatial (www.arabspatioal.org) open-access database and interactive mapping tool was co-launched by PIM and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in February 2013 and updated in January 2014. Arab Spatial includes over 200 indicators of development covering the 22 coun­tries that are members of the Arab League. Data are included on food availability, access, and nutritional out­comes, with added information on the macroeconomy, developments in key sectors and governance, population, access to services, poverty, health, and external shocks and interventions.

Arab Spatial makes available online and in an interactive format high-quality data to support policymaking on food and agriculture in a region that is highly exposed to a variety of potential shocks and vulnerable to their impact.